Mental illnesses and their treatments in Ancient Rome
Apulian pottery depicting Lycrugus of Thrace, an ancient Greek king driven mad by Dionysus[1]
Mental illness in ancient Rome was recognized in law as an issue of mental competence, and was diagnosed and treated in terms of ancient medical knowledge and philosophy, primarily Greek in origin, while at the same time popularly thought to have been caused by divine punishment, demonic spirits, or curses. Physicians and medical writers of the Roman world observed patients with conditions similar to anxiety disorders, mood disorders, dyslexia, schizophrenia, and speech disorders, among others, and assessed symptoms and risk factors for mood disorders as owing to alcohol abuse, aggression, and extreme emotions. It can be difficult to apply modern labels such as schizophrenia accurately to conditions described in ancient medical writings and other literature, which may for instance be referring instead to mania.
Treatments included therapeutic philosophy, intellectual activities, emetics, leeching, bloodletting, venipuncture, sensory manipulation and control of environmental factors, exercise and physical therapy, and medicaments.
^Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae, pp. 132, 192, 242
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